How to backup vmdk and vmx?
Hello, I would like to know how I can make backups of vmdk and vmx files without an Enterprise Client License? I am using Veritas Netbackup 7.5.0.6.
There is no supported way to do this as the NetBackup client is not supported to be installed on an ESX Server.
The only supported way is to use an Enterprise Client per ESX Server to backup all of your virtual clients.
Having said that i have seen some customers who use the internals of VMware (or vCenter) to dump vmdk files to a disk location on a supported server (I do not know exactly how this is done in VMware) and then backup those dumps
This seems fairly straight forward as long as you have a server with enough space to hold all of those vmdk files etc.
Of course doing it that way looses the ability to do granualr restores (individula files) and also takes the restoration of the virtual machines out of the hands of NetBackup.
It really is worth getting the Enterprise Client licenses you need to make life easy and to not miss out on the granular technology and restore functionality.
Hope this helps
